Book Review: Dark Companion

Author: Marta Acosta
Publisher: Tor/Macmillan
Release Date: June 2012
Pages: 368
Read it in: 2 weeks (it takes me forever to read PDFs!)
Source: EGalley from the author

Summary: When foster teen Jane Williams is invited to attend elite Birch Grove Academy for Girls and escape her violent urban neighborhood, she thinks the offer is too good to be true. She's even offered her own living quarters, the groundskeeper's cottage in the center of the birch grove.

Something's not quite right about the school -- or is it Jane? She thinks she sees things in the birch grove at night. She's also beginning to suspect that the elegant headmistress and her sons are hiding secrets. Lucky is the gorgeous, golden son who is especially attentive to Jane, and Jack is the sardonic puzzling brother.

The school with its talented teachers and bright students is a dream for a science and math geek like Jane. She also loves her new friends, including hilarious poetry-spouting rich girl, Mary Violet. But the longer Jane stays at Birch Grove, the more questions she has about the disappearance of another scholarship girl and a missing faculty member.

Jane discovers one secret about Birch Grove, which only leads to more mysteries. What is she willing to sacrifice in order to stay at this school...and be bound to Birch Grove forever?

LC's Take:

Jane Williams has just been given a full scholarship to attend Birch Grove Academy, an elite girl's school where she will have a second chance at life, away from the violent city slums of Helmsdale where she's lived her entire life. Once Jane arrives at the school, she starts making friends and falling for a couple of the boys who live near the school-- both who happen to be the sons of the school's headmistress. However, Jane starts realizing that there is something strange about Birch Grove, and that her reason for being there might not be as simple as she thought it was.

This book was just "OK" for me... I did like reading it, but there were some things about the characters and the plot that I wasn't really a fan of. I'm not even sure I can put my finger on exactly what it was that I disliked, but there were definitely parts about this book that rubbed me the wrong way.

I did like the main character, Jane Whitfield, who was sort of like a modern-day Eliza Dolittle, who rises up from her slum-life background in order to become an educated and well-spoken student with a chance to succeed in life. I loved how she came from such a dismal background but worked hard to overcome her disadvantages. There were also many similarities between her and Jane Eyre, which were echoed throughout the book.

I also liked the secondary characters in this book, especially Mary Violet and Jack-- they were quirky, strange, and kind of unbelievable, but still managed to give the story somewhat of a dream-like quality, because they were slightly "off." It's sort of hard to explain I guess, but basically I liked them because they were different! The ways they talked and behaved were a bit funny, but still very memorable.

One character I could not stand was Lucian "Lucky" Radcliffe, the headmistress's son. Lucky was your typical, unattainable golden boy, who was also extremely selfish and walked all over everybody to get what he wanted. At the start of the story, Jane has thoughts of "How could someone as awesome as him like someone as average as me?" Not that that's bad necessarily, but she did get a little too fan-girl for my taste at times, and I wish she didn't feel like she had to try so hard. Lucky, on the other hand, was controlling and possessive, and even made Jane promise to keep their abusive relationship a secret, and I really wish she would've taken that as a major warning sign to stay the heck away from him a lot sooner than she did.

The story unfolded a bit slowly, but it was still able to build up the right amount of mystery and suspense-- for the first hundred pages or so, you know that something isn't quite right, but you can't really put your finger on it. I was really impressed by this subtle eeriness that only "hints" at something being off, because it made me really curious to figure out what was going on!

I did like the element of mystery in this plot, trying to figure out what Birch Grove Academy's secret was, and how the scholarship girl that Jane replaced disappeared. However, I did think that the story began to drag  a bit, about halfway through the book, and the ending was somewhat anticlimactic, even though there were a few unexpected twists and everything ended up being neatly resolved with all the strings tied up.

Altogether, I think that there will be people who really like this one, and others who may not be huge fans. The dark, Gothic nature of the story and the mysterious mood that surrounded the plot were done really well. However, I wasn't able to connect with the characters quite as much as I would have liked, and I had some trouble keeping my attention going towards the last half of the book. I personally didn't mind reading it, but it was by no means a favorite unfortunately!

**NOTE: I wanted to mention that I did read this book as a PDF file, which might have influenced my overall impression of the book a little bit... I am really not a fan of reading e-copies of books and I think I can be a bit more impatient at times when I do read e-Galleys. I just wanted to be fair and bring this up as a factor that may have affected my overall experience a little!

~Cover Talk~ 

I really love the eeriness of this cover, and the monotone color scheme with the blues and greens is really beautiful! I like how it shows the girl-- presumably Jane-- walking away with her back to us, through the creepy woods. Altogether, it is very beautiful and definitely sets the mood for the story. The only thing that I think feels out of place is the font of the title-- it is too "cheerful" and whimsical for the book. Something more Gothic-inspired would have been a better choice. I've heard that the font may be changed in the final editing of the book though!

LC's Rating:

A Gothic story set with a dark and eerie mood, Dark Companion is a paranormal romance with lots of mystery and suspense. The story did take some time to build, and the ending was a little less exciting than i would have hoped.

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ARC Book Review: Darker Still

Author: Leanna Renee Haber
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: November 1, 2011
Pages: 320
Read it in: 3 days
Source: ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Summary: The Picture of Dorian Gray meets Pride and Prejudice, with a dash of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

New York City, 1882. Seventeen-year-old Natalie Stewart's latest obsession is a painting of the handsome British Lord Denbury. Something in his striking blue eyes calls to her. As his incredibly life-like gaze seems to follow her, Natalie gets the uneasy feeling that details of the painting keep changing...

Jonathan Denbury's soul is trapped in the gilded painting by dark magic while his possessed body commits unspeakable crimes in the city slums. He must lure Natalie into the painting, for only together can they reverse the curse and free his damaged soul.

LC's Take:

Alright, so I had mixed feelings about this book. There were definitely things I liked, and things I was a little bit disappointed with. We'll start with the likes!

First, the characters were great. Natalie was a strong, smart, unique, and independent heroine whose intelligent thoughts and eloquent account of events had me mesmerized from start to finish. While her rationality compels her to disbelieve what is happening between herself and Lord Denbury, she is still inexplicably drawn to his portrait. Her inquisitive nature and vulnerability were the perfect mix to create a very likable main character. I also liked no-nonsense, slightly kooky Mrs. Northe-- she was the epitome of Victorian etiquette and proper manners, but she had a subtle sense of humor that had me smiling to myself every time she entered the story. Her quirky notions and habits made her both endearing and memorable. And then of course there was Lord Denbury-- talk about melt-your-heart irresistible! Dark, brooding, but with a vulnerable, sweet side that longs to do good in the world, Lord Denbury was the perfect gentleman. He sort of reminded me of Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre, and I think you will fall in love with him too!

The writing was also incredibly well-done. Leanna can take the simplest of movements or gestures and with words, turn them into something stunningly beautiful and real. When Natalie reaches to touch the painting of Lord Denbury for the first time, I could actually see and experience the scene. Furthermore, the narrative of Natalie Stewart was witty, intelligent, descriptive and flowing-- it definitely kept me reading!

The story itself was downright creepy and sent shivers down my spine-- it was eerie and Gothic and the plot built up suspense in all the right places. I loved all of the Victorian literature tie-ins too! Leanna vividly captures a proper and superstitious Victorian society with all of the dark undertones and rigid social rules that characterized the time. Reading like a ghost story of old, Darker Still had plenty of shivers, thrills and creepiness!

However, there were some things about this book that rubbed me the wrong way. I'm not trying to turn anyone off from reading this book, but I wanted to point out where I personally had some issues-- probably most people won't even be bothered by these things.

OK, so the first issue had to do with approaching religion and faith in books. I was going to go off on a big tangent about this, but I decided not to. Why? Because it's a personal issue that has nothing to do with the literary merit of the book, and I don't think it's fair to base a review on what I personally believe. Furthermore, I totally understand that much of the story drew its inspiration from Gothic-Victorian elements, which were heavily influenced by religion, spiritualism, superstition, etc. So, while the whole religion thing bothered me somewhat (I won't go into specifics), please disregard this entire paragraph if it's not something that would affect your own enjoyment of the book.

On a (slightly) less controversial note, I sort of thought that this book was a **bit** condescending and derogatory towards men. Now, I'm not saying this was intentional, but I have my reasons for being a little miffed. First of all, nearly all the men in this book were portrayed as being either devilish villains who victimize women, clueless and bumbling idiots, paid cronies, or helpless victims in need of saving. Meanwhile, all the women seemed to be categorized as either fiercely independent and the only ones with enough sense to deal with serious issues, innocent victims of male brutality, or glorified saints and angels. Added to this, Natalie tends to hint at the superiority of women over men, describes her father as though he's nothing more than a child, and mentions repeatedly how unfairly women are treated-- but then makes some rather unfair stereotyped statements about men. Maybe it sounds like I'm being too uptight, but I think that if we read a book written by a male author where all the women were made out to be clueless bimbos and all the men were awesome, we would be pretty offended, so it's only fair to have it go both ways in my opinion... let's not stereotype please! Yes, it is true that women were mistreated and not given equal rights in the 1800's-- and still aren't completely even today. I get that, so I really don't need to be reminded every dozen pages. This only makes me feel like some kind of hidden agenda is being pushed on me, and I don't like that very much.

I also thought that the plot began to drag somewhat, due to the fact that there was so much description and explanation. And the story just got so convoluted! I mean, we've got Christian dogma, Biblical stories, Spiritualism, Mysticism, magic, spells, witchcraft, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Latin incantations, demons-- it was very difficult to sort out and then process the gigantic mish-mash of plot twists. The ending got to be pretty lengthy due to all these conflicting elements, and it took a long time for all the loose ends to be tied up. (You know how at the end of The Lord of the Rings movie there are like half a dozen points where you THINK the story is about to end, but then it just keeps right on a-going? Yeah, similar story here. Side note: I LOVE LOTR, I just thought it was a funny comparison!)

Altogether this was a tough book for me to review because I had so many conflicting opinions about it. Added to this, some of my hang-ups were personal, and while I wanted to stay true to myself and at least mention them, I didn't want them to bias my review. Still-- personal opinions aside-- the writing was awesome, the narrative and dialogue were wonderfully done, and the Gothic-Victorian elements made for a dark and creepy story that was very unique. It did feel to me a little drawn-out towards the end, and I didn't like some of the main characters' opinions. But overall I'm pretty sure that this book will appeal to most readers, and be thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining!

~Cover Talk~

I do like the cover for Darker Still-- I think that the deep purple background goes really well with the purple dress, and I like the glow coming from behind the model for Natalie. However, after reading the book, I think that the model, the dress and the cover all look too modern for the Gothic, Victorian themes and the old-fashioned narrative that the story was told through. The model is very pretty, but not at all how I would picture Natalie! Still, the whole effect is very eye-catching, and I think it will appeal to a lot of readers.

LC's Rating:

Darker Still is a unique and imaginative story that mixes Gothic-Victorian tones with mystery and suspense. Despite some personal hang-ups that I had, I think this was very well-written and that most readers will really love it.